Saturday, February 5, 2011

Caramel Popcorn

Admittedly, this is the result of a craving. But it was at least homemade and I did hold off a whole week before giving in. Soooo yummy though. The problem is that now this batch is all gone and I want to make more!

½ cup butter

2 ¼ cup brown sugar

1 cup karo syrup

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup raw popcorn

Pop corn in an air popper or use about 3 bags of microwaved popcorn. In a saucepan, melt butter and add sugar and karo. Warm. Add sweetened condensed milk. Cook over medium heat until soft ball stage (about 8-10 minutes after it comes to a boil). Do not overcook or your popcorn will be super hard. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Pour over popcorn. Eat as soon as it doesn't burn your fingers. If there are any leftovers, I suggest making them into popcorn balls before they harden too much. Depending on how long you cooked the caramel, it may be hard to chisel out the leftovers the next day. Don't get me wrong, it's delicious and gooey the day of and the popcorn balls are chewy - not hard - but if you leave it all in one mass, it's just hard to work with when cooled. Plus, popcorn balls are nice and easy to throw in a purse and give to a Monkey for a treat.